In recent years, we have witnessed exponential growth in the penetration rate of mobile telephones and personal digital assistants. The automobile was one of the first environments to become widely populated by cell phones beyond the home and office, allowing people to keep in touch while on the move, or while stuck in traffic. Due to the obvious dangers of holding a cell phone in one hand and driving with the other, many regions of the world either strongly recommend or legally enforce hands-free telephone operation in all moving vehicles. It is now illegal to use a handset while driving.
If a user is performing a task that requires both hands, then the user may not be able to interact with a device to receive a communication. For example, if a parent is grocery shopping with small children, the parent may not be able to handle a mobile telephone to answer an incoming call. Similarly, if a mobile telephone is carried in a purse or a backpack, the user may not be able to locate and answer the telephone before the caller hangs up, particularly if the user is also driving a vehicle. Furthermore, the use of a headset may allow a user to perform such applications without necessarily remaining stationary. Hands-free technology also allows users to multi-task in comfort, resulting in increased effectiveness and productivity.
We are becoming increasingly dependent upon computers to store and access data that affects our lives. Computers are able to remotely access time-sensitive information, on or near a real-time basis from the Internet. It is now essential that a user have access to computer data while at all times.
Currently, phone technology has is the wireless device of choice and many other technologies (e.g.—cameras, smart-phones, Internet connections) are being made compatible with the cell phone.
Some cell phones provide hands-free units that permit the user to talk without having to hold the handset. However, even with the hands-free unit, the user must still dial the phone number or speak the phone number to initiate the call. In general, speech-recognition technology comprises a mechanism for receiving an input voice signal, comparing the input voice signal with stored voice signals, and determining if the input voice signal is sufficiently similar to any of the stored voice signals. If there is a match between the input and stored voice signals, instructions or other data is generated by the device.
In the state-of-the-art headsets the loudspeakers, microphones and communications transceiver devices are combined to a single headset device which is then attached to the users ear. In cordless and portable headset equipment only compact headset types that are mounted on one ear are able to meet the high requirements set by the user in regard to comfort and user friendliness.
A wearable computer provides the user with perfect recall of previously collected information. Rather than attempting to emulate human intelligence in the computer, wearable computing aims to produce a synergistic combination of human and machine, in which the human performs tasks that it is does better, while the computer performs tasks that it does better. Wearable computing affords mobility, personal empowerment, and the freedom from the need to be connected by wire to a communications line. U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,526 (Jannard) discloses wireless interactive headset in the shape of eyeglasses. And, U.S. Publication No. 20040204207 (Parker) discloses a hat, or baseball cap, modified to include a removable headset having a speaker and microphone and a rear mounted pocket holding a cell phone. And, U.S. Publication No. 20050116811 (Eros et al.) discloses a bracelet that the individual wears of a verification signal sent by a central computer unit.
Looking at some other biometric technology, U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,285 (Baratelli) discloses a smart card with integrated fingerprint reader. The sensing surface of the smart card is located such that a users thumb is naturally positioned over the sensing surface when the card is inserted into a suitable card reader. U.S. Pat. No. 7,088,220 (Kotzin) discloses a wireless communication device using a plurality of biometric sensors for assessing the identity of a user requesting access to a feature or service provided via the wireless communication device.
What is needed is a device that is ubiquitous to the user that readily carried and located when needed, that comes is a variety of fashions, and can be carried by the user that is compatible with a cell phone or a computer-based wireless communications device, which has become the platform for a broad range of wireless technologies.
What is needed is a device that can confirm the identity of the user in the most secure of all user applications involving either financial security, physical security, or data security, confirming irrefutably the identity of the user, providing bimodal or even multimodal biometric authentication, while enabling the convenience of the use of both hands at all times except when submitting such biometric data.
What is needed is a series of multi-purpose headsets for mobile terminals that are ubiquitous to the user to be able to confirm user identify from any of a variety of locations, and use such confirmation to gain physical access, financial access, and data access from any location in a smooth and seamless manner.
What is needed is wireless identifier device that is a headset, either as a stand-alone unit, with a cell phone, or with a computer-based wireless communications device, that can be worn for long periods of time with minimal discomfort to the user, that can provide fingerprint certainty for all identity authentication, the sensor being small, rugged, and inexpensive, the terminal enabling the person to have use of both hands for driving a car, encourages multi-tasking and enabling a user to access the most personal records from essentially any location.